Eye on Gawker

June 20, 2015

To the Editor:

Re “Snark’s Moment of Truth” (June 14) by Jonathan Mahler, about the Gawker Media chief executive Nick Denton and a lawsuit the former wrestler Hulk Hogan has filed over Gawker’s posting of a sex video:

Mr. Mahler enthusiastically engages in celebrity voyeurism, spinning the employee-abusive, frequently sued and perhaps unlovable Nick Denton as a now transformed, warm, pot-puffing, meditating, married Mr. Nice Guy fighting to protect our First Amendment rights. In the cynical trademark style of Gawker Media, Mr. Mahler focuses on Mr. Denton’s stance on the Hulk lawsuit: The Hulk asked for it. He started the fight.

Mr. Denton stated that Gawker would have settled with Hulk Hogan, but it wasn’t cost-effective. The larger interest of the story is that Gawker, while denying it, is all about eyeballs. Hulk Hogan is proving a fantastic story to milk: With the court date less than a month away, Gawker Media is at five million eyeballs and counting.